ABSTRACT
In the beginning Athens felt so confident of victory that even the war’s opponents saw it at worst as an injustice against a former ally, rather than, as it proved to be, the end of Athenian glory. It seemed at first that the war would remain a scrape. When Plato was about five years old Athens entered into a truce with Sparta called the Peace of Nicias, and well-intentioned Athenians let themselves believe that the worst was over. But another six or seven years of scheming led to renewed warfare in 415, when Athens embarked on the disastrous Sicilian Expedition. Two years later-Plato was fourteen-the news returned that Athens’ powerful armada had been destroyed in battle, and with it naval superiority over Sparta. The Peloponnesian War would limp along for nearly ten more years before the Athenian surrender, but after the debacle at Sicily most Athenians knew they had no chance of winning.
